By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Tonight at 7 pm, Tri-C will present A Tribute to Ruth Brown, including a screening of George T. Nierenberg’s 1988 documentary, That Rhythm, Those Blues, followed by a live performance of music by vocalist Shenel Johns, Dominick Farinacci, and the East Central Jazz Educators All-Star Big Band.

And at 7:30, Jeannette Sorrell will lead Apollo’s Fire in the first of four performances of “Fire and Joy: from Bach and Vivaldi” featuring Debra Nagy, oboe, Alan Choo, violin, & Nicole Divall, viola d’amore (pictured — read a preview here) in works by J.S. Bach and Vivaldi at First Methodist in Akron.

For details of these and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

NEWS BRIEFS:

Cleveland Orchestra principal trumpet Michael Sachs, who resigned from his teaching post at the Cleveland Institute of Music in October after heading the brass department for 35 years, has been appointed to the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia beginning with the 2024-2025 academic year. Read a press release here. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

At Noon, harpsichordist Mikhail Grazhdanov will play works by Louis Couperin, J.H. D’Anglebert’& J.S. Bach at the Church of the Covenant.

And tonight at 7:30 at Disciples Cultural Arts Center, the Danish String Quartet will perform on the Cleveland Chamber Music Series.

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK:

The last two visits the Danish String Quartet planned for Cleveland were not without incident. In 2022, the concert scheduled for January 25 was canceled due to positive COVID-19 test results from one of the performers. Before that, the quartet’s 2017 concert got off to a late start because its cellist was delayed.

As I wrote in a review, “What’s a string quartet to do when their cellist is running late for a concert? Vamp until ready, of course. Before their October 10 debut on the Cleveland Chamber Music Society Series, Danish String Quartet violist Asbjørn Nørgaard and violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen entertained the audience with an informative little off-the-cuff pre-concert lecture, charmingly laced with dry Danish humor and musical examples. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:

We’ll list this weekend’s events by category:

ORCHESTRA CONCERTS will feature Barbara Hannigan conducting The Cleveland Orchestra with soprano Aphrodite Patoulidou (read an interview here) on Saturday evening, and Kelly Corcoran conducting the Canton Symphony with Julie Sarver, piccolo in a “Baroque Bash” on Saturday,

Also on Saturday, Matthew Salvaggio will conduct the Cleveland Repertory Orchestra in music by Margaret Brouwer, including the premiere of her Saxophone Concerto featuring Andrew Hosler. And on Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will play its fall concert under the baton of Daniel Reith in a program that includes Walter Piston’s The Incredible Flutist: Suite, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (read a preview here).

GUITAR PERFORMANCES: On Saturday, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society’s Showcase Concert (artists pictured) will present the Gruca White Ensemble (guitarist Robert Gruca and flutist Linda White), Brazilian singer Luca Mundaca, jazz guitarist-composer Dan Wilson & bassist Brandon Rose at the Maltz (read an interview with Dan Wilson here), and on Sunday, Andrew Flory will play a Theorbo and Guitar Program at the Church of the Western Reserve on Sunday. [Read more…]

by Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

A busy mid-day in University Circle. Today at 11, guest conductor Barbara Hannigan leads The Cleveland Orchestra in a matinee performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 (“Trauersinfonie”) & and Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration. At 12 Noon across East Boulevard, Chamber Music in the Atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art features CIM singers in selections from Handel’s Alcina. And outdoors at 12:15 noon, carillonneur Keiran Cantilina plays requested tunes from the McGaffin Tower.

Friday evening, CityMusic’s Chamber Series presents music by Gioachino Rossini, Florence Price, Johann Sebastian Bach & Franz Schubert, as well as Irish fiddling  at Praxis Fiber Workshop, and in Avon Lake, Apollo’s Fire takes a tour to Venice for double concertos by Vivaldi, highlights from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Lamento della Ninfa, and the Sephardic traditional Seven Ways to Cook Eggplant.

For details of these and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC:

On this date in 1483, German theologian, religious reformer and composer Martin Luther was born in Eisleben. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Barbara Hannigan is a conductor as well as a celebrated soprano. She brings her podium skills to Severance Music Center this week in a Cleveland Orchestra program featuring Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, and another soprano, Aphrodite Patoulidou, will take solo duties in Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child.

And Apollo’s Fire will spend two Nights in Venice, beginning this evening at The Temple-Tifereth Israel.

For details of these and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Local 4 Music Fund executive director Amber Rogers writes:

“In summer 2021, Local 4 launched an annual concert series featuring the works of female, regional, living composers. Now in its fourth season, we are proud to continue our work towards creating a more equitable regional arts community.

“She Scores is open to female-identifying and nonbinary composers who live or work in the states of OH, MI, KY, WV, PA, and IN. [Read more…]

By Daniel Hathaway

HAPPENING TODAY:

Church of the Covenant organists take the Tuesday Noon audience under the hood of the Covenant’s organs. “Here’s your chance to finally see up close what is behind those amazing facade pipes. How does it all work? Bring your curiosity, questions, and walking shoes, as Jonathan Moyer and Oziah Wales perform a little “organ surgery!”

And this evening at 7:30 in Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical Association presents the Akropolis Reed Quintet in works by Ravel & Gershwin, plus “selections from some of the most exciting voices of today.”

For details of these and other events, visit our Concert Listings.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

As part of The Unconscious, the next program in No Exit’s Surreality series, artists Leila Khoury and Kristen Newell have created a three-dimensional surrealist dreamscape at SPACES that will serve as an exhibit unto itself as well as a performing environment for the combined musicians of No Exit and Zeitgeist. The installation will be open to the public starting on November 10 and will run through December 15. [Read more…]